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New mayors are rising to power in Kitchener, Waterloo, London and Windsor while Hamilton recycled a chief magistrate in municipal elections held across the province Monday.

The fresh faces do not include Windsor’s Ernie the Baconman, a perennial fringe candidate who sells wieners from a wagon and promised a new casino with a 747 on the rooftop.

All five cities had wide open races as serving mayors decided not to run again — including London’s Joe Fontana, who resigned in disgrace last summer following a high-profile run-in with the law.

In Hamilton, the new boss is the old boss — former mayor Fred Eisenberger, who campaigned for more study on a proposed light rail transit (LRT) line at a time when Premier Kathleen Wynne is pushing improved public transportation to reduce gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

“People were locking on to a positive message, a leadership of hope and trust,” Eisenberger told radio station CHML after being declared the winner, explaining he wants a citizen’s panel to assess the 13-kilometre project.

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“We need to step back on the LRT issue,” he added. “There’s no value in moving forward if the community isn’t on side.”

Eisenberger replaces Bob Bratina, a one-term mayor who beat him in 2010 and has expressed interest in running for the Liberals in the next federal election.

Clark, who had been on city council, said he prefers a cheaper bus transit solution, arguing there would not be enough ridership to support an $860 million LRT line. Fellow councillor and light rail backer Brian McHattie, who had the backing of organized labour, placed third.

Ottawa voters rewarded Mayor Jim Watson — a provincial cabinet minister from the Dalton McGuinty era — with another term after he promised to push senior levels of government to fund a second phase of light rail lines.

London high school teacher and city councillor Matt Brown replaces Fontana, who resigned last summer after being convicted of criminal charges and sentenced to four months of house arrest and 18 months of probation.

“Londoners have clearly indicated they are turning the page,” said Brown, who will work with several new faces on council.

Fontana, who was a Liberal MP for London from 1987 to 2006 and served as a cabinet minister, was sentenced for fraud and breach of trust for forging an expense document in 2005 — a contract for his son’s wedding at the Marconi Club — to make it appear as if it was for a political event.

In Kitchener, where the closing of a Schneiders plant has been an issue, voters opted to stick with experience.

Six-term councillor Berry Vrbanovic will replace Carl Zehr, who was the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history with 17 years under his belt. Vrbanovic’s closest challenger was fellow councillor Dan Glenn-Graham.

He faced challenges from defence lawyer Erika Traub and former CKCO weatherman Dave MacDonald, a Progressive Conservative who came within 325 votes of defeating former Liberal cabinet minister John Milloy in the 2011 provincial election.

Down the 401 in Windsor, former mayor John Millson, who served from 1988 to 1991, was making a comeback attempt to fill the void left by Mayor Eddie Francis’s decision to step aside. But voters overwhelmingly gave the chain of office to city councillor Drew Dilkens, a labour and employment lawyer with an MBA from Wayne State University in neighbouring Detroit.

Dilkens, who earned endorsements from outgoing Mayor Francis and the Windsor Star, has promised to freeze taxes in 2015 — which would be the seventh year in a row for the border city — to reduce the debt and to fix roads and sewers.

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